This brought in new’variables on the Indian political scene. Accordingly, there were’changes in the British policies towards India and there were’changes in the strategies of the national leadership. On the eve’of the 1939-war, the British government’s grip over the Indians’was fairly loose. It could not expect the unconditional Indian”support in the war as it had in the 1914-18 war. The League’s’support and the support of certain Indian princes and splinter’political group here and there constituted as not enough. The’Britishers knew for certain that the Congress leadership would’not extend its sympathies for the fascist forces against whom the’Allied, the Britishers including, were fighting but that did not’guarantee or imply that the Congress (whose help the Britishers’wanted badly) would help them.
The Congress leadership’also was not in any such mood to embarrass Britain. Taking’advantage of the situation, the Congress indicated its willingness’to support war efforts only if the British government gave some’concessions on: (i) a post-war independence promise and (ii) an’immediate national government at the centre. But viceroy’s reply’fell very short of Congress’s conditions. Then followed the period’of post-war negotiations between the British Government and’the Congress. As the war progressed, and at times unfavourable’to the British interests initially, pressure on the British leadership’mounted heavily and so nearer India began approaching its’independence. But still there was a difference between the tea’cup and the lips.
The Congress President : 1920-1947
1920 Calcutta (Special Session) Lala Lajpat Rai
1920 Nagpur C. Vijayaraghavchariar
1921 Ahmedabad Hakim Ajmal Khan
1922 Gaya C.R. Dass
1923 Kakinanda Mohammad Ali Jonhar
1923 Delhi (Special Session) Adul Kalam Azad
1924 Belgaum Mohandas Gandhi
1925 Kanpur Sarojini Naidu
1926 Gauhati S. Srinivasa Iyengar
1927 Madras M.A. Ansari
1928 Calcutta Motilal Nehru
1929-30 Lahore Jawaharlal Nehru
1931 Karachi Vallabhai Patel
1932 Delhi Madan Mohan Malaviya
1933 Calcutta Madan Mohan Malaviya
1933 Calcutta Nellie Sengupta
1934-35 Bombay Rajendra Prasad
1936 Lucknow Jawahar Lal Nehru
1936-37 Faizpur Jawahar Lal Nehru
Haripura Subhash Chandra Bose
1939 Tripuri Subhash Chandra Bose
1940-46 Ramgarh and others Abul Kalam Azad
1947 Meerut J.B. Kripalani
